"In comparison with Chen Shui-bian's (
But "such an outcome was within our expectation," Luo said.
But yesterday's news was not all bleak for the DPP. In Kaohsiung, Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) held onto his job with an increased majority and the party won the largest number of seats on the city council.
Hsieh took 386,384, votes or 50 percent of the total, to beat his major rival, KMT candidate Huang Jun-ying (
Other minor players, independent candidates Shih Ming-te (
Good weather in the biggest city in southern Taiwan encouraged residents to go and vote, resulting in a 71.38 turnout.
In the city council elections, the DPP took 14 out of 44 seats and the TSU two seats.
In the pan-blue camp, the KMT took 12 seats and the PFP seven seats.
Independent candidates took the remaining nine seats and hold the balance of power between the 16-seat green camp and the blue camp's 19 seats.
Compared with the current city council, the DPP added six seats while the KMT saw an 11-seat decrease.
As in Taipei, the PFP and TSU were fighting in the elections for the first time.
Thousands of Hsieh's supporters last night gathered at his election headquarters to celebrate his victory in a particularly hard-fought battle which saw his margin of victory rise from 0.3 percentage points in 1998 to three percentage points this time around.
"I do appreciate residents who stayed calm in the last three days when facing rumors smearing me," Hsieh said.
Hsieh stressed that all his campaign promises would be put into action based on a strict time frame in an effort to balance development between the north of the island and the south.
Meanwhile, the KMT's Huang thanked supporters at his election headquarters, saying he accepted the election result without rancor and wanted to congratulate Hsieh on his victory.
"I feel so sorry that limited resources and efforts led to the failure which has disappointed you," Huang said.
Independent candidate Chang yesterday said that mischievous letters distributed around the city telling voters she had withdrawn from the contest had influenced the election.
"I hope I'm the last victim of this corrupt election culture," Chang said.
Independent candidate Shih said yesterday that he would do his best to further promote the passage of a draft law promoting Kaohsiung as a municipal port city of commerce and trade.
RSS